Aluminum rolls at the Alcoa plant.
An aluminum maker with a large plant in Bettendorf is saving the day on Wall Street. As of yesterday, the Dow had been down for five days. It was the longest losing streak since August.
But futures rose today as the market reacted to better-than-expected first-quarter earnings from Alcoa, the first of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average to report results. Alcoa posted a profit of 9 cents per share even though analysts had predicted a small loss.
A net income of $94 million marks a turnaround from the $191 million loss Alcoa reported for the fourth quarter. But it’s still way below the net income of $308 million, or 27 cents a share, Alcoa posted in the same quarter last year.
The company says sales rose the first quarter in most of its markets, including automobiles, aerospace, packaging and industrial products.
By Phil Roberts, Davenport